PeterCPC

Hello and welcome.

We all get nights like that. Glad you managed to fix it up ok.

Thank you Steve.

Noted but how, in good conscience, could I sell the scope on at some point without declaring this issue. If I do who would buy it? I wouldn't. I feel that I am left with no choice but to see if it can be improved. If not then I feel it could be sold on knowing that I tried. It's odd that the telescope was fine during it's warranty period and then develops this fault but that's just my bad luck I suppose. I expected better from a scope at this cost.

I am not that confident as it is out of warranty.

No of course not. Thank you for all your help. FLO has agreed that there are pinched optics so I am trying to sort out a resolution.

@FLO Could I have your response please.

Hello and welcome.

I would worry about this in case I do it too much. Are they around the lens cell under the dew shield?

@Adam J Thank you for your efforts, really appreciated. I have referred the issue back to FLO to get their comments. I'm not worried about the corner stars - I am making changes to the spacing.

@Adam J Tried again with the artificial star last night and the air was much less turbulent. Temperature was 5C. When I transformed these from FITS to jpeg they were much brighter than they appeared on the laptop screen so the first one showing the star in focus (by Bahtinov) is not much help I think. I managed to darken the others sufficiently I hope. 1-6 were taken from in focus going out. 7-10 were taken just past focus going the other way (if that makes sense)

Astro gear is usually valued at about 70% of new prices if it's in good condition. At the end of the day it's what anyone else is prepared to pay for it.

Yes I let the scope cool for about an hour first. I'll try again soon.

@Adam J I set up my artificial star outside - temp around 5C or so. Air currents were a nightmare but these were about the best I got either side of focus. I will have a go at a real star when I get the chance.

@Adam J Hi Adam I used my artificial star and came up with these. I cannot see a problem as you describe but image 4 looked a bit odd so I carried on moving out of focus and got image 5. Try and ignore the dust specks.😟 These were done indoors so not low temperature. What do you think? Thanks for all your help by the way. FLO have suggested that maybe the focus draw tube needs tightening up slightly to stop tilt. I'm not sure which of the 8 screws on top does that so I e mailed Slywatcher.

Does anyone know which screws to adjust to slightly tighten the focus drawer tube. I presume it's the block on top of the tube but there are 8 screws there. An image would help enormously. I am getting a slight tilt in imaging but not every time.

FLO have come back and said that they do not see any optics pinching. They suggest that I concentrate on the back focus (spacing) issue. It's true that this occurred in sub zero temperatures so I hope to see an improvement as temperatures rise. We'll see.

The answer from APT was to put the gain in but let APT chose the exposure (auto). We'll see.

@FLO Please see above. I have sent you an e mail as well. I see older posts about pinched optics on the Esprit 100 so this looks to be a known problem.

Thanks everyone. I have asked FLO (who sold it to me bench tested) what they can do to help.

I downloaded Startools and I can see that there is a repair tab. However, I can't for the life of me work out how to do it. Any chance that you could let me have a basic workflow in how to use it?

300 secs Have a look at last nights effort. I added another shim to increase the backfocus. Again it's 300 secs and guiding was good throughout. I did do a slight crop.

I have asked the question and will post any response here.

It did it again last night - just a complete very bright screen. I cannot get Live View to work again.

Sorry but I misposted before. That's exactly what I do use. You say fix the curvature in processing. How would you do that - I just crop normally.